Askernish Golf Club

Congratulations to Storas Uibhist for getting the course open, and I hope it succeeds in attracting a large new niche of tourists to Uist.

As Storas hope, this could help to push the case for a much-needed Lochboisdale-Mallaig ferry, despite the failure of our Parliamentarians to support it.

It is another tangible sign of the success of the commmunity buy-out, and I hope that there are many more to come.

(BTW: Is the Eriskay course still operational?)

Transmission charges

The news that energy transmission charges are to remain in their current form is way beyond deeply disappointing.

Currently, the further you are from the market (for which read the South East of England) the more you pay.

Frankly, despite the better wind and waves here, why build a wave power station off the west coast, when the extra yield will be more than swallowed up by the cost of transmitting the power?

If the proposed small community power companies can sell all their power locally, then they can avoid these costs, and there should be no impact on their proposals. (There are enough other difficulties to cross before coming to fruition).

This proposal can only tip the balance further in favour of nuclear, which might (of course) be the whole point behind the consultation exercise being held in the first place.

The Governments support renewables, just not in the places where they can operate most efficiently.

Power connection in Gravir

The possibility of the SSE subsea cable landing in Gravir, is naturally very upsetting for the local residents, and were I one I would be up in arms too.

It raises all sorts of difficult political issues that could have been (should have been!) foreseen before we got to this stage.

Unfortunately, SSE seem to have powered ahead with the prospect of their windfarm in Pairc being foremost in their minds, rather than the approved Eishken development, or the possibly larger Eishken development that is still going through a PLI.

The next application that will have to come in is under s39 of the Electricity Act for the pylons to run between Gravir and the windfarms (unless the cables are undergrounded) and if you think that the battle over the turbines was fierce....

The Minister would have to approve any compulsory purchase wayleaves that SSE applied for, leaving the community with almost no input to the decision, unless the community benefit for the Paric windfarm can be extended to embrace the landfall location of the interconnector.

Of course, our MP and MSP promised to stop any windfarm development (later amended to 'any non-community') but now find that their Government have allowed the first development to take place and almost certainly will end up approving the compulsory wayleaves for SSE, as there are few grounds for refusal. And if the Eishken PLI finds in favour of the extended development.... Their overall lack of understanding of the proposals is, of course, why they are currently being silent on the issue.

In the meantime the Council are getting a kicking as being 'responsible' for the plans. Plus ca change.

Sitting on the sidelines and watching all this happening is both entertaining and frustrating, as I know that I could have ensured that it was all handled much better. However, I think it is going to get messier before it gets better, and I suspect that Gravir will have this hanging over the village until the other side of the Scottish Elections in 2011. That will be exactly the sort of 'planning blight' that Lingerbay suffered, and we all hoped never to see again.

Let me reiterate something I have said many, many times before: all of these planning decisions need to be taken promptly, whether they are for approval or rejection. Vacillation is not an option.

Renewable energy policy

Jim Mather is due to visit next week to discuss the results of the new approach to renewable energy that he requested following the 'conference' held in March.

Let me summarise the probable outcome of his coming visit:

Council: There are vast areas of the island that can be used for renewable energy. Do you support development in these areas?
RSPB/SNH: Of course, but all subject to bird survey and environmental impact assessments.
Developers: And subject to the sites being economically viable, so we are only interested in a small section of the possible sites, as previously advised to everyone.
Ofgem: And then you need to speak to us about a connection to the grid before anything can actually happen.
Communities: Why can't we get the detail we need before we can decide if we support or oppose the proposals.
MP/MSP:
Minister: Job done. Get on with bringing proposals forward in the normal manner.

All: WTF has been achieved?

School holidays

Like most parents, we are looking forward to the return to school on Thursday with some trepidation and some joy.

The children will be into new environments; with some new friends to make and some old friends to lose; new teachers; and, new challenges ahead.

On the up side, (especially for working parents) the daily routine will be set for the next nine months and the almost daily need to entertain and amuse will be removed reduced. Well at least for the next seven weeks before the October holidays commence.

Tonight we knocked off a bit early and went out for dinner with the kids to celebrate the end of another summer and to talk about the changes they face this week. It can't be done tomorrow, as that is a night for early to bed for us all.

The serious parent-child talk was kind of lost in the debris of food splattered around the table (by the baby, I hasten to add) and watching the boys eat adult portions, plus garlic bread, plus dessert. More food than us in fact, yet they are so active that they burn it all off.

The important stuff went by the board as we watched with mounting disbelief as they ate and ate, and then they waddled home. Where have our babies gone? Enjoy them while they are young, as it flies past in the blink of an eye. (Time for another one? - cue slap round head from Mrs N!)

National electricity tender

The plan to launch a national tender process to supply power to all the public sector bodies is an excellent example of lateral thinking by the Scottish Government.

The public sector has the financial muscle to demand highly competitive prices and force its way into the wholesale market.

Assuming this doesn't take control away from the other public bodies, then this could be the start of a huge efficiency drive by Government that will streamline purchasing and save us all large sums of money.

Well done chaps!

Labour in socialist policy shock!

In a shock move a Government Minister has called for the reintroduction of redistibutionist taxation policies.

The Health Minister, Ivan Lewis, (who he? I hear you call. He has risen without trace to have all the profile of a sheet of A4 side on) has laid out his view on how the Labour Party can try to avoid a complete rout at the next election.

In a radical change of heart, he suggests that cosying up to the ultra-rich and giving millionaires tax breaks might just not be in accordance with the core values of the party.

In a densely written and sometimes impenetrable article he lays out his views without committing the sin of actually committing himself to anything or any view. Whilst this weaseling about may be good for his career prospects in the medium term, the lack of any decisiveness shows exactly what is going wrong with the Labour Party.

I am not advocating specific measures - those are decisions for the chancellor and prime minister. A windfall tax, enhanced government support for mortgages, a stamp duty holiday and higher taxes for the highest earners may be necessary and popular.

So increased taxes on the wealthiest might be good. Dear God, has this man no understanding of the people he is supposed to be representing?

Obviously not, as the poor, infirm and elderly are not the key group he sees as benefiting from this additional tax yield.

Yes, protect those on the lowest incomes but also help the hard-working middle classes with large mortgage commitments who are neither rich nor poor; the people who work long hours for their two holidays a year, leisure club membership, meals out with family and friends and ability to buy their children nice things;

Is this a joke? Is he taking the piss in the form of a supposedly serious article? Do the first letters of every sentence spell "I-A-M-H-A-V-I-N-G-A-L-A-U-G-H"? No, this man is deadly serious.

Yet, he advocates this policy as being a short-term or temporary matter to see the economy through a difficult patch (which is code for The Next Election, not the credit crunch), not as a long term policy to be implemented to ensure that the less well off are protected.

Such is the paucity of intellectual thought in the Labour Party, and yet another reason why they deserve to lose the next election, and lose it badly. Then cull the numpties and find the party's soul.

Before I get outed.....

I made my first visit to the new Tesco in Stornoway today.

First impressions:

• It was quiet in the store at 11am on a Saturday
• The shelves are very tall and stocked right to the top
• The aisles are very narrow
• The layout is very clean
• The variety is huge

Second impressions:

• Check-outs are very fast
• Lots of really good prices
• But the overall cost was very similar to the prices in the Co-op

Overall, you can see why they make so much money, with the shelves being constantly restocked in a highly efficient manner and with excellent customer service. The share price reflects their skills and abilities, and it will be interesting to see how long the extensive variety continues, and more importantly what happens after they expand the store.

Will definitely go again.

Fuel tax regulator

It looks like I might have been wrong about oil going to $200 per barrel by Christmas, as the expected recession in the West is likely to dampen demand.

The graph of oil prices over the past six months is instructive (I don't know if this will update automatically or not) showing the peak at $140-150.

(Graphic removed, as it wasn't working and a link put in its place)

So how does this tie in with the calls for a fuel duty regulator?

As you know I have been very sceptical about the usefulness of the such a proposal, considering it to be daft, ill thought-out, and pushed by under-informed politicians.

In April this year (when oil reached $110) the cry was for a regulator to soften the impact of the expected continual increase in fuel prices. I asked the simple question - which remains unanswered - at what price should the duty rate be set?

"It's too high", is hardly and informed and intellectual response to that question, and betrays the lack of understanding of the speaker.

With prices now heading downwards, if a fuel duty regulator had been put in place when our MP and MSP made their siren calls then we would be facing petrol prices that were kept artificially HIGH to ensure that the yield from fuel duty remained the same.

I am sure that this outcome is not one that MacNeil or Allan realised they were actually campaigning for when they tried to grab the headlines.

Carinish Inn

Supposedly sold to the Free Church, the hotel seems to be back on the market at an increased price.

Has anyone got an update on the current situation?

(BTW: having less than 10 letting bedrooms means that you don't qualify as a 'hotel' for tax purposes and cannot get tax relief on the cost of the property. No charge; this time.)

Goodbye Gordon Brown?

With the death of John MacDougall MP, Gordon Brown faces a direct challenge in his own backyard.

MacDougall was MP for Glenrothes, and any result is going to be read as the public view on the neighbouring MP, our Glorious Leader, Gordon Brown.

The election will be delayed and delayed, simply to make sure that the Labour Party machine is working before any election is called.

And to find some mug to take the poison chalice that is the nomination.

The last results were:

Party	Votes	Share
Labour	19,395	51.9%
SNP	8,731	23.4%

Giving a majority of 10,664, which on current trends makes it a marginal seat.

The next Olympics.....

I know, hold me back from the excitement. But according to the official organising committee the handover of the torch from Beijing to London is capturing the imagination of the entire country....

Towns, cities and communities are planning their own celebrations with a series of events and initiatives happening across all nations and regions.

This includes a network of big screens in every nation and region of the UK showing live coverage of the Closing Ceremony and the concert in London.

Find your local screen on the list below:

The worlds briefest press release?

Courtesy of (who else) but the Scottish Government....

Dundee's cultural attractions

Ministerial Visit

A mysterious Ministerial visit to Barra is planned for Wednesday.

No-one seems to know much about why Des Browne, Secretary of State for Scotland, has suddenly decided to visit a small part of the Western Isles. Or why knowledge of his schedule is restricted to him flying in at 10am and out at 6pm.

Have you seen this man? Details of sightings welcome.

Of course, Des has another job as Secretary of State for Defence.

Does this explain the visit?

The Nirex list of potential nuclear dumping sites is still unchanged and includes two islands in the vicinity, so sightings of migratory military types, or mysterious boat or helicopter trips will be very gratefully received.

Even better, confirmation of the removal of the two islands from the Nirex dumping list will be very gratefully received and given great publicity.

Mallaig - Lochboisdale ferry

Can anyone point me to any comments - supportive or otherwise - that our MP or MSP have made on the proposals put forward by Storas Uibhist, and about which I have blogged?

South Ossetia

The tragedy in the Caucasus continues; just a new chapter in a new location.

Often it seems that the Schleswig-Holstein question is moved to another location, but in practice the root of the problem lies with the old imperialist idea of being able to define a country and its peoples simply by drawing a line on the map.

The Europeans tried this in Africa, using rivers or rulers to define where one occupying power stopped and the next started. That the same tribe was on either side of the river; or that bitterly opposing tribes were forced together was of no concern. Administrative simplicity was all.

The end result has been bloodshed as the newly independent countries have tried to find a reason to be, and as tribal divisions and clan favouritism exacerbate the problems.

Of course, this is not restricted to Africa. The creation of Iraq as a British Protectorate at the behest of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in the 1920's was without thought to the views of the warring tribes who made up the new 'state'; and the consequences have been with us ever since.

Lenin is to blame for the situation in Ossetia, as the Russian Empire repeated the same mistakes of it's opponents.

The danger is that the issues are now so interlinked on a global stage that one decision can have so many repercussions that now, more than ever, care has to be taken in playing the Great Game of global politics.

The Russians opposed the independence of Kosovo as they were conscious of the burgeoning demands for independence in Ossetia, Abkhazia, Inghusetia and Nogorno-Karabakh to name just a few in the immediate area. Similar claims for independence will trouble politicians throughout the world as the independence movements in Tibet, Catalonia, Flanders and indeed in Scotland.

That is not to say that the independence movements should be either all supported or all rejected; each case is different, as the wannabe statelet of Transnistria amply demonstrates.

The response of the politicians is, frankly, pathetic. Georgia invaded/retook South Ossetia using what seems to be excessive force, and without justification - other than to take control of an autonomous part of the country - and Russia has defended/exploited the situation to try to gain influence in the area.

The UK and US are both condemning Russia for continuing to launch raids, but I have yet to anyone condemn Georgia for starting this whole war. Perhaps the fact that Georgia is a US client state may have something to do with this?

We appear to be supporting the aggressor and only getting involved when our friend realises that he is losing the fight.

No-one is right in what they are doing, and it needs to be stopped now, before it spreads. And that can only happen with an even-handed approach by the rest of the world.

-----

The media need to get a grip on the seriousness of the events in Georgia.

The war seems to only focus on the radar by reference to the travel plans of the photogenic Katie Melua, as if somehow her presence (or absence) will be of consequence to the Kremlin. Apparently she was born in Georgia or perhaps in Armenia.

Google maps, in the meantime, seem to have the Russians operating in a different part of the Deep South.

Staffing crisis?

In recent weeks five top managerial staff in the Social Work Department of the Comhairle have left, taking with them (literally) irreplaceable knowledge and experience.

Although I don't know all of the staff who have left, the ones of whom I have had personal knowledge and experience will be enormous losses to the day-to-day operation of the department.

My understanding is that the prime reason for the upheaval is the restructuring of the department - or more precisely, the long dragged-out dismemberment of the department and the transfer of responsibilities to the Health Board, the Education Department and the Sustainable Communities(!) section.

The staff see no direction from the top, and I don't mean the Director, or respect for what they are delivering. The uncertainty caused by the interminable delays, allied to the probable outcomes of the restructuring have driven these skills off the island.

In an unexpected turn, I understand that one of the very senior members of staff (I'm not going to identify the individual) has a new job in Glasgow, but in a reversal of the norms is commuting from Lewis every week!

On an associated topic, the impact of single status seems to have been to drive large numbers of qualified staff out of the Council, and I understand that Technical Services is facing such a huge skilled staff shortage that it is having to re-employ the same staff as 'consultants' and pay them substantially more or be unable to deliver the necessary work.

This is a prime example of the business acumen of Government - central and local.

Sunday Sailings

So Calmac have ruled out any Sunday sailings between Ullapool and Stornoway this winter.

On one hand it could be noted that this is only for the winter 2008/09 timetable, whilst on the other you can wonder just how the ferry is going to cope with the huge increase in traffic forecast as a result of (a poor version of) RET being introduced.

If almost-RET takes off, then we are going to have queues for the ferry and people turned away meaning that the impact of RET-on-the-cheap cannot be properly measured.

However, as I pointed out some time back, if you are trying to measure part of the impact of the quasi-RET scheme then you do not want to change any other parameters, by adding extra services, otherwise you cannot draw properly substantiated conclusions about the impact of the crumbs thrown to us by Government.

Therefore we have ended up with the worst of all worlds: reduced fares for tourists and occasional travellers*; full ferries being jammed to the gills; and, not everyone who would want to travel being able to do so.

Thinking cynically, it is almost as if the Government want to demonstrate that the pseudo-RET scheme doesn't work and shouldn't be extended or continued (although that decision won't be taken until after the next election!)

* The new prices range from slightly lower to significantly higher than the current 6 ticket books available to regular travellers.

Northern Rock

Another £3bn of our money has been set aside to fund the black hole that is Northern Rock.

£3bn that is unlikely to be recovered in any way, and which is being set aside to help pay for the wind-down of the business, hence reducing it's value even further. This is another shining example - as in a shiny turd - of the Government displaying political, economic and business ineptness of staggering magnitude.

The 'good news' is that Northern Rock has managed to repay £9.4bn of the £27bn loan. And now it can be trumpeted that £12.4bn has been 'repaid'. That's 'repaid', as in not repaid. As in creative accountancy. As in window dressing.

Of course, the loans and advance have reduced by £14.5bn during the period with a plan to shed 60% of its total mortgage business within the next few years. That should free up some £45bn to repay debts and leave an unsaleable asset into which we have pumped large sums of money to ensure it has enough capital to compete in the market that, er, it is getting out of as quickly as it can and for which it doesn't need the capital.

If these guys - The Badger and the Captain of the Titanic* - ran a business they would be bankrupt within months; but then they don't have the intelligence to do so, which is why they are professional politicians.

* © John Prescott - with friends like this.... you need a gag.

Demonstrations

One of my clients stopped me in the street to invite me to join him in a demonstration.

When I was a Councillor he used to have excellent fun berating me for every ill that befell him or the islands, and that I was personally responsible for setting the Council Tax at an exorbitant level; that I was responsible for every decision of the Council; that I had to do something about the price of fuel at Campbell's Filling Station (a matter more forcefully expressed to the Vice-Convener); and that I was personally responsible for the poor crab prices.

Since I retired/took a sabbatical he has focused on getting me to join him at the barricades, protesting about ... well, anything and everything.

Today, my invite was to join him outside Alasdair Darling's holiday home in Uig to protest about the price of fuel. The Chancellor is due here any day now, for his regular summer holiday, and my friend thought that this was a perfect opportunity to explain in words of four-letters, the impact that fuel prices were having.

Having neither declined nor accepted, I will be kept informed in the unlikely event of the matter proceeding.

I understand that last year when Mr D was crossing the Minch he was cornered on the ferry by two local gentlemen who wished to discuss the economic policies that he was following. So confident and robust was the Chancellor in the defence of the Government that within minutes he was pleading with the crew to find him somewhere to hide.

This was how the Chancellor - without his family - spent most of the crossing in the Captain's cabin.

Does anyone know his dates of travel for this year? Just so we can greet him warmly at the pier, you understand.